If there’s anyone who deserves to throw a hell of a 50th birthday party, it’s Jennifer Aniston: She’s a huge star, defined cool American style—and she’s put up with years of straight-up rude headlines, whether they were Brangelina adjacent or asking once again when she’d have kids (she’s happily child-free). Aniston, of course, also happened to be married to Pitt from 2000 to 2005, and it’s something people kind of can’t let go of. Two years after Brangelina split in 2016, Aniston broke up with husband Justin Theroux last February, which has sparked all sorts of “rekindling the romance” headlines. All this to say, she puts up with a lot as she lives her life—and nothing says “50 will be my best year yet” like a headline-making West Hollywood hotel rager.
It was reportedly an actual who’s who of a guest list: George and Amal Clooney, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, Katy Perry, Ellen DeGeneres, Demi Moore, Barbra Streisand, Jon Hamm, Laura Dern, Charlie Day, Orlando Bloom, Tom Ford, Diane Keaton, John Mayer, Keith Richards, Reese Witherspoon—basically everyone you’d want to invite to your iconic milestone celebration. I mean, everyone in Hollywood turned out. What we might not have expected, though, is that Brad would show up to it.
Pictures exist of Jen wearing a black jumpsuit (gotta love a good party jumpsuit), while Brad was reportedly doing his usual newsboy cap and long hair thing. The back of his head, the one true Pitt sighting captured from the night, can be viewed here. Here’s what else we know, which is not much: According to W, “He arrived in a black SUV and was dropped off at the front door of the hotel. Literally nothing else has been made public.”
Speaking as someone who’s happily, platonically friends—super-close friends, even—with her ex, it is entirely possible that two people who once dated can still see each other as people at the end of all of it and hang out. After all, hopefully you were dating them in part because they were a good, fun person. I personally think it’s very nice that he showed up!
Twitter, needless to say, had some thoughts.
There was outright GIF glee:
A lot of wishing for once was:
Some using their powers of clairvoyance way too early:
And some people pointing out the obvious, because it’s Hollywood, and everyone’s hot, and the dating pool is only so big:
Also there was this voice of reason, embodied by a purple heart as big as its soul:
Anyway, I hope Aniston wished for everyone to leave her alone about this this year as she blew out the candles. Happy birthday, you icon.